Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Russian Killed Outside Trial in Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- A Russian businessman allied with Ukraine's president was killed by a sniper Tuesday as he was escorted from a courthouse during a break in his extortion trial, a government official said.

Maksim Kurochkin, 38, was hit by a bullet fired from a building next to the court, said Volodymyr Polishchuk, an Interior Ministry official. A police officer guarding the businessman was seriously wounded.

Ukrainian media reported that Kurochkin had repeatedly asked the court to release him on bail, saying he feared for his life and claiming that he had survived 18 assassination attempts, including a November 2004 car bombing that seriously wounded his bodyguards.Kurochkin had been charged with extortion in connection with a fight for control of a southeastern Ukraine goods market.

Three other businessmen connected to Kurochkin and the market were shot dead earlier this month as they rode in a car, Polishchuk said. The director of the market was killed in October.Kurochkin's trial had been closely watched because of his ties to pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. During the bitter 2004 presidential campaign and Orange Revolution protests, Kurochkin ran an organization called the Russian Club that supported Yanukovych.Kurochkin, who was arrested in November at Kiev's airport, had said the charges against him were fabricated.

About Me

From Capitol to Capitol, a life two roads diverged.
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"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." - George Orwell
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"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national Interests." - Winston Churchill
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"When we are unwilling to draw clear moral lines between free societies and fear societies, when we are unwilling to call the former good and the latter evil, we will not be able to advance the cause of peace because peace cannot be disconnected from freedom." - Natan Sharansky